Hidden within this skull are the secrets of everyday life in Rome. (Credit: Kristina Killgrove)

When you think of Roman history, the first things that come to mind are probably the stories of emperors, gladiators, and soldiers. That's mostly because those are the aspects of Roman life that we know the most about, thanks to written histories and abundant archaeological evidence.

But of course, most Romans weren't emperors or soliders. They were slaves, potters, farmers, artists, beggars, prostitutes, butchers, and all of the other professions that make the day to day work of an Empire work. However, given the sharp class divisions through most of Rome's history, we don't know a lot about how everyday people lived.

However, one archaeologist hopes to change that – using modern DNA techniques. Kristina Killgrove, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University has been working with the skeletons of the common people of Rome, extracting their DNA to learn their stories.

Killgrove has already done some preliminary work, examining the content of the bones for isotopes and other chemicals that can explain the day to day life of Romans. She discovered, for example, that Rome was full of immigrants from all walks of life and from far flung locations. They also yielded interesting information about diet and disease for the average Roman citizen and immigrant.

Now she's hoping to do more. If she can extract DNA from the skeletons, that will yield much more details about their lives. Where immigrants came from, for example.

But in order to do that, she needs funding. But rather than seek a grant, she's looking for direct money through crowdfunding as part of the #SciFund Challenge, a project where 49 different projects are trying to raise money by directly appealing to the general public. You can see her project website here. She needs to raise $6,000 for her project, and as of this writing she's raised over $2,600 of the money she needs – almost half way.

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